alibi
Other forms: alibis; alibied; alibiing
Your alibi is evidence that proves your innocence. If you were making cookies with your mom when someone raided your sister's piggy bank, your mom is your alibi, since she knows you were with her when the crime was committed.
The noun alibi is the same word as its Latin root, alibi, which means "excuse." When you provide an alibi, you are giving proof — a certified excuse — that you could not have committed a crime. Alibi is easy to confuse with alias, which means "an assumed, or false, name."
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(law) a defense by an accused person purporting to show that he or she could not have committed the crime in question
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type of:
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defence, defense, vindication
the justification for some act or belief
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defence, defense, vindication
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a defense of some offensive behavior or some failure to keep a promise etc.“every day he had a new alibi for not getting a job”
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synonyms:
exculpation, excuse, self-justification
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types:
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extenuation, mitigation
a partial excuse to mitigate censure; an attempt to represent an offense as less serious than it appears by showing mitigating circumstances
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type of:
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defence, defense, vindication
the justification for some act or belief
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extenuation, mitigation
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exonerate by means of an alibi
/ˌæləˈbaɪ/
/ˈæləbaɪ/
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Vocabulary lists containing alibi
Where there's a will, there's a motive to solve a murder. When eccentric millionaire Sam Westing dies, he leaves instructions for sixteen people to come to the reading of his will. With a fortune on the line, Westing's death becomes a puzzle they'll race to solve.
The trial is over, and now the members of the jury hold a man's fate in their hands. Nearly everyone is convinced the defendant is guilty—everyone except Juror 8. He tries to convince the other jurors to acknowledge their preconceptions and examine the case with fresh eyes.
Ray Bradbury once got stopped by the police for walking on a deserted street. In this story, he transforms his experience into science fiction. Here are links to our lists for short stories by the award-winning author: A Sound of Thunder, All Summer in a Day, August 2026, Marionettes, Inc., The Black Ferris, The Drummer Boy of Shiloh, The Flying Machine, The Pedestrian, The Veldt